This black-faced man is none other than Cheng Yanjin, he is a famous ranger in Dong'e County, Jibei County, who causes trouble all day long and does not do his job.

More than two months ago, on a whim, he organized more than 100 ruffians to join the Jibei County militia and Zhang Xutuo to encircle and suppress the bandit Zhang Chengjin, but Zhang Xutuo's army had not yet come, and the four counties were too greedy for merit, so they launched an attack first, and the result was a plan, the militia was defeated, and Cheng Yanjin's men suffered heavy casualties, so that he had no shame to return to his hometown to see his father.

I heard that Shan Xiongxin in Lucheng was bold and righteous, and he made friends with the heroes of the world, so he brought more than a dozen of his subordinates to come all the way to vote, but Shan Xiongxin had already gone to Wagang, and Erxianzhuang was also burned down by the government.

Tonight is their first day of work, but they met Zhang Xuan, and they were exposed by someone else.

Although Cheng Yanjin is addicted to gambling, the gambling products are not good, and it is common to lose money and repay the debt.

Obviously, he had the upper hand, but the other party was his hostage, and he actually cleaned himself up without a single soldier, which casino rule is this?

He was just about to turn his face, but a subordinate next to him quietly pulled him and pointed outside, only then did Cheng Yanjin find that there were people standing around the other party, all holding swords and spears, looking at them coldly, they were surrounded.

Cheng Biting Jin was shocked in his heart, and secretly screamed that it was not good, the other party's claws were hard, and he touched four black Lu, but he was a pheasant, and I am afraid that this plate of beans is really going to lose.

Cheng bit the golden eyeballs and rolled his eyes, the hero does not suffer the loss in front of him, and he will pass this level first.

He patted his chest, "My Lao Cheng is also a well-known man, admit the gamble and admit defeat, first say okay, Lao Tzu will go with you to the Turks, and then we will go our separate ways." ”

"We're up for sure!"

Zhang Xuan stretched out his hand and shouted to Cheng Yanjin's subordinates who were holding his war knife: "Give me the knife!" ”

His momentum shocked the remnants of this group of fallen soldiers, and Cheng Yanjin's men timidly stepped forward and returned the knife to him.

Zhang Xuan put fifty taels of gold on the boulder, and with a wave of the knife, the gold was immediately split in half, and he threw half of the gold to the person who returned the knife, "This is twenty-five taels of gold, worth two hundred and fifty yuan, and it is also your eldest brother's salary for this trip to the Turks, take it and divide it, go home by yourself!" ”

"That's my money!" Cheng bites Jin Dayi.

"You big brother deserves to be chilling!"

Zhang Xuan shook his head, and said to more than a dozen people: "The thirteen of you will share two hundred yuan, and the other fifty yuan will be given to your eldest brother's wife for dinner, do you hear?" ”

Everyone didn't dare to agree, they all looked at Cheng Biting Jin, Cheng Biting Jin was actually worried that his wife would have nothing to eat, since the other party thought of it for him, then he no longer objected, and shouted to his subordinates: "Fifty yuan to my mother, you dare to swallow it privately, see how I go back and wring off your head?" Let's go! ”

Everyone was homesick, so they saluted Cheng Yanjin, packed up their things and hurriedly left, at this time, Cheng Yanjin glanced at Zhang Xuan and asked, "Boy, what should I call you?" ”

Zhang Xuan smiled faintly, "My surname is Zhang, and you are now my hired partner, so you can call me Zhang Dongzhu." ”

．．．．．．．

Zhang Xuan asked Zhao Dan to borrow a horse for Cheng Yanjin as a foot force, and everyone continued to set off north, although Cheng Yanjin was forced to admit defeat in the gamble, but he was unhappy in his heart, with a gloomy face along the way, ignoring anyone, opening his mouth for dinner, sleeping on the couch, and refusing to work, so he hoped that Zhang Xuan would take the initiative to cancel the gambling contract, and he would go south to Wagang to join the gang.

Although Cheng Yanjin is not good at gambling, good at drinking and gambling, losing money and paying for money, and greedy for money and lustful, he has an advantage, that is, he is extremely filial to his mother.

The gambling contract between him and Zhang Xuan is 200 yuan, and all of it has been given to his subordinates to go back to the hometown, he can not admit it, but Zhang Xuan gave his wife another 50 yuan for dinner, but he had to pay back this favor, so he didn't want to sneak away, unless Zhang Xuan terminated the gambling contract himself, he could only follow Zhang Xuan to the north.

But Zhang Xuan smiled, not angry with him at all, and had no intention of canceling the gambling contract, which puzzled everyone, what is the meaning of finding a person who eats and drinks for nothing and doesn't work as a partner?

On this morning, the group finally arrived in Taiyuan City.

It is bordered by the grassland in the north, Hebei in the east, Sanqin in the west, and the Central Plains in the south, and has been one of the most important strategic places of the Central Plains Dynasty since ancient times.

As a state of annexation, Taiyuan City is also the largest and most prosperous Xiongcheng north of the Yellow River, and is the rear base camp of the Northern Imperial Turks of the Great Sui Dynasty.

Therefore, Yang Guang thought twice and chose Li Yuan to stay in Taiyuan.

On the one hand, their mothers are sisters, and Yang Guang and Li Yuan themselves are also cousins, so they can be trusted in family affection.

On the other hand, although Li Yuan belonged to the Guanlong aristocracy, he was not a core figure, and was even excluded by the Guanlong nobles to some extent, which made Yang Guang very satisfied.

But the most critical point is that Li Yuan performed very well in this rebellion against Yang Xuangan, not only resolutely broke with Yang Xuangan, but also had a clear attitude.

Moreover, Li Yuan served as the Taishou of Honghua County and the military commander of Guanyou at that time, as a military officer who controlled the military power of Longyou, in the face of the emptiness of troops in Guanzhong, he always stood still and did not have any dissent.

What's more important is that appointing Li Yuan as the Taiyuan Guard can provoke infighting among the nobles in Guannai, as long as Li Yuan is not given military power, why not?

Therefore, after exterminating Yang Xuangan's rebellion, Yang Guang transferred Li Yuan to stay in Taiyuan to guard this most important strategic city in the north.

Zhang Xuan and his entourage entered Taiyuan City, and the atmosphere of prosperity and excitement rushed to them.

Taiyuan is a male city, with a large population, the circumference of the city is more than 50 miles, its structure is not like the chessboard neighborhood like Luoyang Chang'an, but it is also neat and orderly, miscellaneous but not chaotic.

Both sides of the central street are full of large and small shops, inns, wine shops, green houses, gambling halls, mansions, and all kinds of shops, almost everything.

Just when they were curious about the customs of Taiyuan City, there was a cry in front of them, only to hear someone shouting, "Tell you, your shopkeeper has taken a fancy to it, and you have to sell it, and you have to sell it if you don't sell it!" ”

I saw a black-clothed steward walking out of a shop with a group of soldiers, and the shopkeeper ran out with the shopkeeper and cried: "This is the property left by my ancestors, I don't sell it!" ”

The black-clothed steward turned around and grabbed his shirt, and said viciously: "Zhang Agui, let me warn you first, don't toast and don't eat and drink, move all the things this afternoon, and I'll close the store tomorrow, if you are still there, don't blame me for being ruthless." ”

After saying that, he pushed the proprietor away and led the soldiers away, leaving only the howling and crying of the proprietor and his wife.

The people next to him were talking, and Zhang Xuan couldn't help asking: "Who is this, so arrogant?" ”

"Hey! This is Li Yuan's housekeeper who stayed in Taiyuan, Li Yuan takes a fancy to this shop, and he refuses to let go of the old shop that has been operated by people for a hundred years! ”

Someone next to him hated and said: "I thought Li Yuan was a loyal elder, but now it doesn't seem to be a thing, just two months after staying behind and robbing and looting, two days ago the hundreds of acres of the Yang family's fields outside the east city were also forcibly occupied by him, and today he started to attack the store, when is the head!" ”

Zhang Xuan was surprised in his heart, how could Li Yuan be such an image, it was too unexpected for him, he looked at Chai Shao in puzzlement, Chai Shao was also flushed, and he couldn't speak.

"Let's stay first!"

Zhao Shan broke the deadlock, pointed to an inn not far away and said with a smile: "That inn is good, I live there every time!" ”

Everyone came to the 'Shunfeng Inn' in front of them to stay, Zhao Dan went to buy some goods, Cheng Yanjin was idle, asked Zhang Xuan for some money, and went shopping and drinking alone.

Chai Shao took Zhang Xuan to the Liushu Mansion to introduce him to his father-in-law, although Zhang Xuan was very disappointed in Li Yuan, he decided to meet him.

The two rode to the front of the left-behind mansion, and just arrived at the gate, they saw more than a dozen middle-aged men in silk robes sitting on the steps, many of them were obese, pot-bellied, and kept wiping the sweat on their foreheads.

Not far away on the wall, there was a large row of men, with burdens beside them, and in the burdens were heavy vermilion lacquer cages.

At this time, a butler walked out of the gate and smiled at everyone: "Let everyone wait for a long time." ”

More than a dozen wealthy businessmen rushed up and rushed to stuff the gift slips in their hands to the butler.

"This is my gift to the left-behind adults, five hundred taels of gold, and the duty of Bing Cao must take care of my son!"

"This is my gift, two buckets of pearls, and I implore the left-behind adults to recommend my son to Beijing."

The housekeeper accepted the gift list one by one, and said with a smile: "Everyone write down the requirements clearly, don't worry!" The left-behind adults will definitely meet everyone's requests, everyone bring gifts, and follow me to the back door! ”

The housekeeper walked towards the back door with a large group of people, Chai Shao became more and more surprised, and wondered why his father-in-law had destroyed his reputation so much, but Zhang Xuan did not speak, he seemed to understand something.